The Two Questions You Need To Answer Before Calling Yourself A Business

If I asked you who your ideal customer was, and you responded by confidentially saying…

“Everyone!”

I would be forced to whip out the old crane kick from Karate Kid and lay down a whoopin’!

Essential Question #1

Who is my customer?

If you still want to hold on to the lie that anyone with a heartbeat is your customer, then you might as well stop reading this post. But if you are serious about becoming a successful entrepreneur, you’ll continue reading and pick up a few bits of genius along the way!

The only way your hair brained ideas will take off, is if you narrow your focus down to a single person who wants to give you their money in exchange for your product or service. Think hard about what your ideal customer looks like, their age, interests, where they hang out and what it is they value most.

Now, before you go to bed, I want you to make a list consisting of no less than twenty-five key terms which best describe this fictional prospect. Be sure to keep in mind the ways in which this customer receives information.

Is it through television, newspaper, email, do they own tablets, smart phones or have a Facebook page?

Once you’re finished, I want you to fold it in half three times, shove that list under your pillow and go to sleep.

Sleep is an amazing thing.

Once you disengage from forced thought, and your mind starts to drift off as you enter a state of REM (Rapid Eye Movement…Google it!), your brain begins to work in a more natural state. A state free from the stresses of distraction like nearby conversation, traffic, television, or that damn Facebook status update notification! As you lay there in your bed motionless, your brain is moving faster than this girl can stack cups!

And since the last thought that was in your head before you drifted off to dreamland, was a description of your ideal customer, your brain will continue weeding through those twenty-five characteristics, and naturally focus that list down even further.

When you awake in the morning, immediately take the piece of triple folded paper out from underneath your pillow, and make the necessary edits. What you will be left with is an accurate description, similar to what the cops would use to describe a fleeing suspect, of the guy or girl who is going to make you rich! The only thing left to do is to give them a name and face. Cut a picture out of a magazine, and paste it on the edge of your computer monitor. Every time you move to invest money in marketing or advertising, ask yourself…

“Would this ad entice “James or Jill” to buy my product?”

Essential Question #2

What does my product do?

Even if you are in a service based industry, you have a product to sell, and that product is you and your skills.

This question is one that I struggle with the most. I have yet to clearly define what it is that I do! Nothing is more frustrating to me than when I find myself fumbling through my description of service offerings, while my prospect is left standing there looking at me like I had just sprouted a third eye. Even after a barrage of questions, they often leave confused and resistant to pursue a future engagement.

Since I’ve started this whole marketing and advertising gig, I’ve been able to develop some canned responses, but I still struggle with conveying and selling my skills to a world that is in desperate need of what I have to offer.

(To hear my latest “what I do” pitch, give me a call at 815.441.2219, and as soon as I answer, immediately say “What do you do!” At first I’ll be taken back by your brash introduction, but then I’ll give you the greatest sales pitch of your life! Guaranteed. ~Any)

If you sell an actual product, then you just need to research the crap out of that thing! Know every single nook and cranny, how it operates, where it was built and why it is worth me spending my hard-earned money on it. You never want to find yourself in a situation where you have to “make something up.”

The best reply to a question to which you don’t know the answer to is this…

I will research the answer to that question, and have a response back to you within 24 hours!”

That’s a little trick I picked up after tasting my own shoe sole one too many times!

Have a clear description of what you do, and if you need some extra help like myself, write out a few responses and memorize them. Just like when an actor receives the action cue from a director, you’ll be in position to recite every line of your pitch and blow your prospect out of their Dockers! Be sure to avoid pauses, fillers like uh and um, and never forget to look them in the eye.

Be confident in yourself and others will have no choice but to believe in your abilities.

Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.” ~ Francois Rochefoucauld

Once you have these two questions answered, any glass ceiling placed above you will be shattered! There are no longer any boundaries or forces of resistance holding you back.